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The Devil's Gift (1984)

Synopsis
by Cavett Binion

This bargain-basement time-waster plagiarizes most of its premise from the Stephen King short story "The Monkey" then does it further injustice by going virtually nowhere with the concept. It's also likely that the filmmakers built on the few seconds of natural spookiness generated by a wind-up mechanical monkey and padded it out with about 100 minutes of filler. Said padding involves the lethal havoc visited upon a suburban family when the son receives the cymbal-clinking, glowing-eyed toy as a gift, unleashing the demon within -- which then exerts its evil influence on the kid's parents. Aside from a clever animated opening sequence, there is nothing to recommend this talky, scare-less yawner.